Ask a Franciscan

By Pat McCloskey, OFM

Pat McCloskey, OFM

Father Pat welcomes your questions!

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What Is Systemic Racism?

I read with interest your reply to a question about systemic racism in the May 2021 issue. I’ve been hearing this term used more and more lately, and I’m not sure if I agree with what I am hearing. Can you define what systemic racism is?

As I understand, systemic racism means that people (White people in particular) are brought up to be racist through institutions such as schools, churches, organizations. I am a White woman in my 60s and don’t feel that I was brought up to be racist or that the community where I grew up purposely tried to encourage me to feel hatred toward or superior to another race of people.

When raising my children, they were taught tolerance in their schools and our church. They weren’t taught to hate others. My children played with other children; race and ethnicity were never an issue. They were not taught by any of the institutions that they attended to hate a group of people or made to feel superior to a group of people due to race, religion, or ethnicity (the italicized words define what I think racism is).

I realize that racism exists, but I have an issue with the term systemic racism. Instead, I believe that racism is more familial in nature and is passed from one generation to another within the family unit.

It’s very upsetting to me and to many White people to be told that we are inherently racist when we try to be tolerant and loving toward others, regardless of their race or ethnicity.

One last point: Isn’t calling White people inherently racist actually a form of racism?

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Material is grouped thematically under headings such as forgiveness, prayer, saints, sacraments, and Scripture. Thanks for writing about a subject crucial to the present and future of our country and world. The key word here is systemic, that is, not attracting much attention because it seems perfectly normal—perhaps something like saying something perfectly obvious, for example, “Water is wet.” Systemic racism seeks to stay under the radar, simply reflecting “what everyone knows” or a very twisted definition of “normal.”

The opposite would be the blatant racism of a KKK rally, the 1955 murder of the teenage Emmett Till for allegedly flirting with a White woman, the 1921 race massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the 20th-century lynchings so common they were eventually no longer reported in US newspapers.

I think that it was during the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Israel in the 1960s that Hannah Arendt coined the term “the banality of evil.” This approach is certainly reflected throughout The Screwtape Letters, the C.S. Lewis classic written during World War II. Satan tries to make sin look perfectly normal and God’s ways crazy. “Systemic racism” names a reality. Only you know how much it describes the assumptions of the family, social groups, and church in which you grew up. I’m glad that you were not taught to hate people of any race, religion, or ethnicity. Unfortunately, too many people were.

In some places, the Catholic Church in the United States desegregated schools, hospitals, and other institutions before the landmark 1954 US Supreme Court Brown v. Board of Education ruling. In other places, the Church followed that lead—but always with great resistance from some Catholics and the general public. In 1963, Our Lady of Good Harbor’s parish school was firebombed the day before it was to open as an integrated school. It never reopened. I knew the friar there who received death threats from people opposed to this change.

Racism can be a conscious choice, such as in the examples cited above. More commonly, however, it is a sin of omission (failing to challenge attitudes or actions that degrade certain groups of people because of their race or ethnicity). All over the world, racism may be

the most frequent sin never acknowledged as a sin. Blatant racism goes unchallenged wherever systemic racism is regarded as “normal.” I haven’t told individuals or groups that they are racist; I have only said that systemic racism exists. No one is inherently racist. “You’ve Got to Be Taught” is the title of a powerful song in the musical South Pacifi c. Such teaching can be direct or more oft en indirect. In some situations, “Silence implies consent,” which is how we recognize negligence (for example, when someone has witnessed a criminal action but refuses to testify about it in a court of law).

Jesus teaches us to avoid sins of commission and those of omission.

Is the Timing Off?

In praying the joyful mysteries of the rosary, I wonder about the timing of the events cited—for example, the presentation of Jesus in the Temple 40 days aft er his birth. Weren’t Jesus, Mary, and Joseph in Egypt then, hiding from King Herod the Great? Also, if according to the law Jesus’ circumcision happened eight days aft er his birth, where did this occur?

The problem here arises from the fact that Matthew’s Gospel (with the fl ight into Egypt) and Luke’s Gospel (with the presentation of Jesus in the Temple) are not coordinated chronologically.

Matthew’s Gospel has the Magi fi nding Jesus, Mary, and Joseph in a “house,” whereas Luke has Jesus born in a cave (probably not a freestanding stable). King Herod’s spies were obviously bumblers if they could not fi nd Jesus within 40 days of his birth.

Sometimes we are tempted to impose order where that simply cannot be done. I think this is one of those situations.

Quick Questions and Answers

Where can I fi nd the story about St. Francis sending a mentally ill man to St. Clare for healing?

Section 32 of the Legend of St. Clare (written in 1255) describes her as blessing Brother Stephen and then allowing him to take a short nap in the place where she usually prayed, perhaps her choir stall at San Damiano. He went away feeling much better.

Why does the Church allow the dismembering of saints in order to obtain relics? Th is seems terrible and very bizarre.

In Rome’s catacombs and elsewhere, Christians used to gather near the graves of martyrs and others to celebrate the Eucharist.

When Christianity was no longer a forbidden religion, cartloads of bones were taken to the Pantheon in central Rome. Christians in distant places began asking for bone fragments to place in the altars where they celebrated the Eucharist.

During this month of gratitude, light a candle of thanksgiving

for the blessings in your life.

“Give thanks to the LORD, who is good, whose love endures forever.” —1 Chronicles 16:34 When the Franciscan friars light a candle for you on StAnthony.org, it will burn for three days at the National Shrine of St. Anthony in Cincinnati, Ohio. Visit StAnthony.org to light your candle.

The Franciscan Friars, Province of St. John the Baptist 1615 Vine St., Ste 1 Cincinnati, OH 45202 513-721-4700

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